Cine-Excess has been on my radar for some time, but for some reason I've never attended. Last year SCI-FI-LONDON Film Festival founder Louis Savy briefly introduced me to Legendary Director Joe Dante and when I found he was in town to take part in Cine-Excess IV. I made a mental note that I would need to look into Cine-Excess V. Well it's almost upon us and this year's theme and programme have been announced and it's pure cult all the way.

Cine-Excess, the annual International Conference on Global Cult Film returns to London at the end of May with Cine-Excess V – Subverting the Senses: The Politics and Aesthetics of Excess.

The event will take place at the Odeon Covent Garden and the Italian Cultural Institute, Belgrave Square, London from Thursday, 26th to Saturday, 28th May and will be attended by Guests of Honour, Italian acting legend Franco Nero (Django; Keoma; Die Hard 2) and controversial cult director Ruggero Deodato (Cannibal Holocaust; The House On The Edge Of The Park).

The full line-up is:

Thurs 27 May

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Censorship Debate: The House on The Edge of the Park.

Panel discussion on the controversial film with the director, Ruggero Deodato, author Prof Martin Barker, Craig Lapper (senior examiner at BBFC). Chaired by the international authority on censorship, Brunel University's Julian Petley. Although The House on The Edge of the Park is not scheduled to be screened I've added details below for reference.

The House on the Edge of the Park (1980)

Two lowlife punks invite themselves to a party at a posh villa and after being taunted by their snobbish hosts, hold everybody hostage and subject them to various torture and mayhem.

Director: Ruggero Deodato

Stars: David Hess, Annie Belle and Christian Borromeo

Time: 630pm -7.30pm

Venue: Odeon Covent Garden, London

Cannibal Holocaust Trailer

World premiere of the new cut of Cannibal Holocaust (18) and QA with director Ruggero Deodato

An anthropologist heads a rescue party into the South American jungle to find a missing film team making a documentary on cannibal tribes but can only return with their footage, which reveals their crueler intentions.

Director: Ruggero Deodato

Stars: Robert Kerman, Francesca Ciardi and Perry Pirkanen

Time: 8:30pm - 11pm

Venue: Odeon Covent Garden, London

Fri 27 May

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A Quiet Place in the Country (18) (1969) Franco Nero will introduce the film.

Leonardo (Franco Nero) is a painter who retreats to a house in the country to regain his lost inspiration. He is plagued by the presence of an erotic apparition. The gorgeous ghost soon moves the painter to the point he wishes to carry on a relationship with her.

Leonardo is several bristles shy of a brush as he sinks deeper into insanity. Vanessa Redgrave and Gabriella Grimaldi also star in this story of madness and horror with an Ennio Morricone soundtrack.

Director: Elio Petri

Stars: Franco Nero, Vanessa Redgrave and Georges Géret

Time: 8:30pm - 11pm

Venue: Italian Cultural Institute. Belgrave Square, London

Django Trailer

Sat 28 May

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Franco Nero on stage followed by screening of Django (1966)

The legendary Italian actor talks about his career in films and introduces Segio Corbucci's cult Spaghetti western, Django

Django (1966)

A coffin-dragging gunslinger enters a town caught between two feuding factions, the KKK and a gang of Mexican Bandits, and is caught up in a struggle against them.

Director: Sergio Corbucci

Stars: Franco Nero, José Bódalo and Loredana Nusciak

Time: 4:30pm - 6pm,

Venue: Odeon Covent Garden

Live Like a Cop, Die Like a Man & QA with Ruggero Deodato

Director Ruggero Deodato, specially selected this film for the event.

Live Like a Cop, Die Like a Man Poster

Live Like a Cop, Die Like a Man

Fred and Tony are members of an elite 'special squad' of police in Rome, Italy whom are licensed-to-kill, undercover cops whom thrive on living dangerously.

Director: Ruggero Deodato

Stars: Marc Porel, Ray Lovelock and Adolfo Celi

Time: 9pm - 11:30pm

Venue: Italian Cultural Institute

About Cine-Excess

Organised by Brunel University in London, Cine-Excess brings together global cult film icons with international scholars in an event that features international filmmaker discussions, a three-day academic conference and UK theatrical premieres and exclusive screenings.

The theme of this year’s Cine-Excess is “Subverting the Senses: The Politics and Aesthetics of Excess”, which examines the theme of the controversial cult image in its political, historical and aesthetic contexts. With the resurgence of critical interest in the 1980s “video nasties”, as well as a whole new generation of films being subject to state control, the cult image is now a crucial index between the censor and the censored.

Both Franco Nero and Ruggero Deodato will be discussing their prolific careers in relation to these wider social trends and tensions at the event. Cine-Excess V will also feature a screening of Deodato’s controversial classic, “Cannibal Holocaust”, which is being released on Blu-ray by Shameless Films later this year.